The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Dealerships and automakers around the country have been fighting electric car maker Tesla’s direct-to-customer sales model, but many have wondered why they care so much about a car that costs more than most people earn in a year. Now you can expect that fight to get even nastier after Tesla founder Elon Musk announced plans for a high-end electric car that only costs around $35,000.

The former eBay exec confirmed reports that the third generation of Tesla vehicles, set to go on sale by 2017, was supposed to be called Model E, but Ford had to ruin that plan.

“We had the model S for sedan and X for crossover SUV, then a friend asked what we were going to call the third car,” Musk said. “So I said we had the model S and X, we might as well have the E… We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E – I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex!”

Instead, it will be the Model 3, with three bars in the logo so, according to Musk, “it’ll be S III X!”

The images provided to Auto Express apparently aren’t definitive representations of the Model 3, as the site says they show “how it could look.” Regardless of the final appearance, it’s believed that the Model 3 should be about 20% smaller than the S.

E-vehicle battery technology has gotten significantly cheaper in recent years, which Musk says is one way Tesla plans to keep the Model 3’s cost down. Tesla’s planned Gigafactory battery operation will also provide batteries for other car manufacturers.

Range is often the biggest roadblock for customers thinking about purchasing an electric vehicle; if your battery dies far from a charging station, you could be out of luck. Musk claims the Model 3 will have a range of over 200 miles.